Thea Render Revision 470

[giannis]

Dear friends,

with this revision, we have basically made our big step towards final release, in fact, this release candidate could be the base for the final release. And we simply, "touched" a lot of important areas in Thea.

First of all, and most crucial, is that we have re-calibrated the display output along with changes in sun-sky system. All lights and HDRIs have been confirmed with respect to their power. We introduced also new units Watts per nanometer (W/nm) for representing power distribution and removed the - obsolete now - multiplier for point lights. These changes won't show much difference when trying to render a scene (quality-wise), but for older scenes, sun-sky has to be regenerated (disable/enable sky) to get proper render. This is why, if you are in the middle of production rendering, that you should not jump directly to this revision, as it generally needs some re-tuning on the lights.

Moving on, this revision is the most robust one, geometry-wise. Displacement, anisotropy, bump and normal mapping have been considerably improved. Anisotropy is now working excellent even on the most difficult meshes (mixed flat/smooth meshes). Normal and especially bump mapping are better than ever, without exhibiting the high frequency noise ("fireflies") that takes so long to clear in unbiased modes!

Apart from the above, there are also other small fixes along with full string table for translators (to be published). As always, you can find the new revision in the usual thread: http://www.thearender.com/forum/viewtop ... =61&t=1849

best wishes


Since, the download speed is not always that good (something that we are going to improve with an upgrade in March), here is a mirror for downloading:
Windows: http://www.solidiris.com/thearender/The ... .3_RC3.exe
Linux: http://www.solidiris.com/thearender/The ... RC3.tar.gz
MacOSX: http://www.solidiris.com/thearender/The ... .3_RC3.dmg

[troopers]

thx

[noro]

... ok, how to control IES lights strength??? any tutorials, and why do we have to choose ies folder every time we use ies lights???

[giannis]

... ok, how to control IES lights strength???

You mean now that the "Multiplier" has gone?

and why do we have to choose ies folder every time we use ies lights???

Hmm... some users were asking exactly for picking IES lights on arbitrary folder on disc.

[kbrown13]

noro wrote:
... ok, how to control IES lights strength???


IES should already include the lighting strength in the file, if you are looking for a different wattage or intensity, should you not be using a different IES file?

[riccky]

Trying this new release. Problem with IR and Camera, changing the shutter speed don't work anymore

[Javadevil]

How come the multiply was removed from the IES point lights ?
I use mutliplier a lot, there's a lot of work I do where physically correct lighting isn't what my clients want.

[nigec]

I agree, we should have the option to break the rules when needed

[giannis]

How come the multiply was removed from the IES point lights ?
I use mutliplier a lot, there's a lot of work I do where physically correct lighting isn't what my clients want.

Ok... I guess that this needs to get back. But how were you doing this for area IES lights in the first place?

[Panga]

Thanks a lot for the improvements on the viewport !! Now I can see my full model even from far away !!!